83% of consultant physicians say rota gaps are directly impacting patient care, while resident doctors say ‘the system is broken and we’re burning out trying to fix it’.
As hundreds of doctors gather at the Regent’s Park home of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) for Med+ 2025, a major new report calls for urgent national workforce planning, medical training reform and investment in social care.
Doctors across the UK are delivering high-quality care under ‘unrelenting pressure’, says the RCP, with many physicians warning that unsafe corridor care, rota gaps and overstretched services have become a routine feature of hospital medicine.
The voice of physicians: RCP emerging themes report 2025 exposes a system under strain, with rising workloads, deteriorating staff morale and growing concern about the safety and sustainability of patient care in the NHS.
Launched at Med+ 2025, the RCP’s annual conference celebrating clinical excellence, the report draws on RCP hospital visits between October 2024 and September 2025, as well as national surveys from 2025 including Focus on physicians and the next generation survey.
Among consultant physicians, the RCP has found:
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83% say consultant rota gaps directly impact patient care, especially through increased length of stay and reduced access to outpatient care
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45% enjoy their job less than last year
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66% report resident doctor rota gaps on acute medical rotas
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78% had provided care in corridors or waiting areas in the past month
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68% report problems with delayed discharges
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59% report consultant vacancies in their departments
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30% have made plans to bring forward their retirement age.
The RCP is calling for urgent national action, including:
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a long-term workforce plan with independently verified projections for consultant and specialist numbers to meet population need, and fair distribution of doctors across all regions and specialties
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fairer, more flexible training reform with protected time for supervision and education built into every programme
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action to close rota gaps, reduce reliance on locums and recognise the non-clinical work that keeps the NHS running
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support to retain senior doctors, making consultant roles more sustainable and enabling flexible retirement options
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a national commitment to end corridor care, recognising it as unsafe and unsustainable, with transparent data published all year round
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investment in social care, to tackle delayed discharges, improve patient flow and prevent avoidable hospital admissions
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stronger, clinically led leadership, ensuring inclusive decision-making and visible accountability at every level of the system.
Professor Mumtaz Patel, RCP president, said:
‘Physicians are working tirelessly to deliver safe, compassionate care in an NHS that is under extreme pressure. But we cannot continue to ask doctors to perform the impossible. Corridor care is unsafe and unsustainable – it must never become normalised. The RCP is calling for coordinated national action to tackle workforce shortages, protect training time and invest in social care to restore safe patient flow.’
Among resident doctors, the RCP has found:
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Only 44% are satisfied with their clinical training
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26% say their current role is not preparing them for the next step in their medical career
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Only 17% think the current postgraduate training recruitment processes are fair
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35% say they don’t know if they will be, or do not expect to be, in the NHS in 5 years
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47% say rotational training has a negative impact on their wellbeing at work.
Yet, despite the challenges, we also found senior doctors providing high-quality patient care, leading quality improvement and delivering world-class medical education. We heard from enthusiastic and passionate resident doctors who were leading quality improvement and medical education projects, while studying for professional exams and completing workplace-based assessments.
Today’s report highlights examples of innovation and excellence across the UK – from ambulatory care models in Craigavon and frailty services in Southend to work led by resident doctors to reduce the bleep burden in Wrexham and structured development pathways for locally employed doctors in Nottingham.
Dr Catherine Rowan and Dr Stephen Joseph, co-chairs of the RCP Resident Doctor Committee, said:
‘We want to learn and deliver great patient care, but the reality is that service pressures often leave little time for training or reflection. When you’re constantly firefighting, supervision and education are often the first areas to get pushed to the margins – yet they’re essential for patient safety and for developing confident and competent future consultants.’
Responding to our next generation survey, one resident doctor told us:
‘When someone is off sick or away, we’re just expected to absorb the extra workload without recognition, or support, doing the work of two people with no additional time, resources or pay. When I advocate for my training needs, I’m made to feel like a burden or a troublemaker. There’s no accountability for training failures, either locally or regionally, and many consultants are so overwhelmed themselves that they’re no longer in a position to fight for us and their future colleagues. The system is broken, and we’re burning out trying to hold it together.’
Another described the frustration of systemic pressures that are eroding medical training:
‘My clinics and admin tasks spill into evenings and weekends because the workload during the day is unmanageable, and there’s no protected time or space to complete them. I feel burnt out, undervalued and underpaid for the level of responsibility I carry.’
We heard that there is simply no time to train the next generation of physicians:
‘The hospital is so busy that clinicians don’t have time to teach. The turnover is so fast that it’s just service provision 90% of the time. There is no time to seek educational opportunities.’
One resident doctor highlighted the impact of growing bottlenecks in specialty training:
‘The recruitment process for higher specialty training is also very stressful. It leaves you feeling out of control of your own life choices and unable to make plans. This puts your life on hold and impacts your partner and wider family. The competition ratios are only getting worse and despite this, there are always registrar gaps and short staffing.’
Testimony from some resident doctors was stark:
‘I love being a doctor but it’s not sustainable for me to work like this long term, and things are getting worse. I’m leaving at the first opportunity I get.’
‘I feel I'm giving everything to the NHS and getting little back.’
Professor Patel added:
‘We heard powerful stories of dedication, innovation and teamwork from physicians at every stage of their careers. Their expertise must be at the heart of health system reform. Listening to doctors and acting on what they tell us is the only way to ensure that the NHS remains safe, sustainable and fit for the future. Our response to the 10 Year Workforce Plan will emphasise the importance of genuine and meaningful engagement with clinicians as key to the delivery and implementation of NHS plans.’
Every year, the RCP carries out membership engagement visits to hospitals across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. During every visit, we meet with resident doctors, specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors, locally employed doctors and consultant physicians in closed sessions to listen and learn from our colleagues. This helps us to understand what’s happening on the ground in health and social care across the nations – by sharing their experiences, our members give us valuable insight that informs our influencing work and ensures that we can advocate for change with governments and health systems around the UK.